Israel's Colin Powell

A decade ago, I hoped current Israeli Defense Minister and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak would be the next Yitzhak Rabin. Sadly, Barak has morphed into Israel's Colin Powell instead. Today's New York Times profile of Barak's rising political fortunes is a sad commentary about Israel's body politic and Barak himself.

A decade ago I respected Barak and believed him to be Yitzak Rabin’s natural heir. His mentor Rabin was a soldier statesman who bled for Israel's self-preservation from day one but later took personal risks for peace. During the 1980s, Rabin served as Defense Minister in the Labor/Likud coalition government and implemented a "broken bones" policy to put down the first Palestinian Infitada. Rabin though was not comfortable strategically or morally with Israel as an occupying power and he later collaborated with his onetime Labor Party rival Shimon Peres to facilitate the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat.

Oslo is ridiculed today and the famous 1993 handshake with Arafat as Bill Clinton cajoled a reluctant Rabin is far removed from today's world. Sadly, Rabin paid the ultimate price and was assassinated by a right wing nut in November 1995. I'm convinced that had Rabin lived a two state solution would be within reach today. Alas, we'll never know.

Islamic extremists exploited Rabin's assassination and used terrorism to undermine Shimon Peres's government. Peres had never prevailed in a national election before and didn't possess Rabin's national security credentials. That opened the door for the despicable Benjamin Netenyahu in 1996 who zealously pursued a reckless policy to achieve a "Greater Israel."

Ehud Barak defeated Netenyahu in May 1999 but not before the peace constituencies in both Israeli and Palestinian societies were severely dispirited. Both Arafat and Barak also blundered at Camp David in 2000-2001 as President Clinton desperately tried to bridge the divide. With neither Arafat nor Barak possessing the political capital or will to make the necessary compromises, super-hawk Ariel Sharon provoked conflict with his stroll into the Temple Mount as the Israeli public elected him to succeed Barak in 2001. The Palestinians reaped the whirlwind as Barak opted to leave politics.

Barak returned to serve in Prime Minister Olmert's Kadima-Labor coalition government following the disastrous war with Lebanon in 2006. As the New York Times reported, he opposed military aggression in Gaza just as Colin Powell disagreed with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld over the Iraq War. As the article also notes, Barak initially resisted warmongers in Israel’s body politic as an old soldier who is horrified by war and didn’t believe a harsh military response to Gaza made strategic sense.

Indeed, Barak was rightfully more concerned with the strategic long view with respect to Iran and believed occupying Gaza would be self-defeating. Yet just like Colin Powell, Barak opted not to resign or publicly oppose his government's policy.

So Barak is now prosecuting a war he knows to be immoral and strategically self-defeating. A war that international aid organizations such as the Red Cross are properly condemning Israel for after four children were discovered next to the bodies of their dead mothers. And Barak's political fortunes are rising because of it as nation states typically rally in a time of war. There is a good chance he will prevail in the upcoming election for Prime Minister against the transparently narcistic Netanyahu and feckless Kadima Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livini.

As I've previously written, Hamas also merits condemnation for regarding their people as collateral damage just as Arafat did while he lived the good life inside Lebanon back in 1982. Nonetheless, Israel has responded disproportionately to Hamas's provocations. The number of Israeli deaths does not justify the mass killing of innocent Palestinian civilians. As someone dedicated to peace and human rights as well as a Jew who cares about Israel, my heart feels as if it's impaled on a dull blade.

And Barak, the hero of the Entebbe Rescue in 1976 and onetime Yitzak Rabin protégé is an enabler. Pitifully, Barak actually represents the best Israel's body politic has to offer. A decade ago Barak's political ascendancy represented hope. Today this talented man is a symbol of Israel's decaying body politic that has gone insane. Just like Colin Powell and America’s body politic in 2002.

Promoting Blog Talk Radio At WWL

One of my favorite bloggers is Diane G, the proprietor of the Wild Wild Left (WWL). Diane has asked me to post her promotion of WWL's entry into the exciting world of blog talk radio. Read all about it below.

This Friday, January 9th will be the premier of the Wild Wild Left Radio Hour at 6pm Eastern time on the Blogtalk Radio Network.



I'm Diane G, and will be producing the weekly hour, and am honored to have two of the Left Blogosphere's best writers, Gottlieb and Ed Encho as Co-Hosts of the Show.

This week we will open with a short introductory conversation, followed by a WWL take on current events.

In our second half hour, our special guest this week is Commander Jeff Huber, author of two books, and proprietor of the esteemed "Pen and Sword" blog.

Cmdr. Huber will be answering questions from a military expertise point of view about the fronts we are engaged in presently, as well as the Gaza Crisis.

Tune into to listen to the live stream, add commentary in the live chat area, or call in and talk directly to our Hosts or Guest. Make sure you tell me what Blog you post from, and we will shamelessly plug your blog on air too!

All you have to do to join us, is click the blogtalkradio link, and you will be able to listen to the live stream of our radio show.

If you want to be able to type questions or suggestions in without calling in, you have to go to that same link and create an account first. That will allow you to type in the chat. Its free, and will allow us to see what you type while we are on the air. If you have never used a chat, all you do is type and hit enter, and all user comments appear in a window, chronologically.

I will add the direct "link" to the chat 15 minutes before the show on The Wild Wild Left.
(thewildwildleft.soapblox.net)

You do not have to sign in to listen or call! The call is free, other than whatever phone charges your own service provides. The area code is in New York.

Now, if we get a lot of potential callers, you may have to re-dial. Once you get through TURN YOUR SPEAKERS DOWN and listen to the show through your phone while on hold. Listen for me to say "You're on the Air!" and then fire away! :)

We would love to hear from you!!!!

If you miss the show, and want to hear it, there will be a podcast embedded at WWL shortly after the show.

Panetta Good, Feinstein Bad

Too tired after a long day to express any complex or nuanced thoughts. So, I'll simply write that California Senator Diane Feinstein has zero credibility. Her pathetic oversight performance of intelligence "insiders" during George W. Bush's presidency while serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee merits no respect. Hence, I am encouraged by Feinstein's opposition to an intelligence outsider such as Leon Panetta being nominated as the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. If a figure so lacking in foresight and judgment such as Senator Feinstein is opposed to Panetta's nomination then it must be a good idea.

The culture within the CIA does not deserve to be rewarded with one of their own like George Tenet. Sadly, Feinstein has demonstrated a grotesque predisposition to favor the very intelligence insiders that have undermined America's moral authority as well as damaged our national security. Panetta possesses just the sort of impeccable management credentials needed to facilitate a culture of accountability and competence at the CIA. And accountability and competence are long overdue.

Citizen's Petition To Prosecute War Crimes

Formal Petition to Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes. To sign the petition, click on the badge above. Also, any readers who have blogs, please click on the "Get Badge" designation and copy and paste the HTML code so your readers will be aware of it. The goal is 100,000 signatures and I am only the 13,756th person to sign. So please spread the word.

At stake is the restoration of what is left of our national honor. America will never have moral authority in the world again unless those who perpetuated war crimes are held accountable.

Twenty First Century Fireside Chats

During these times of adversity and hardship, President-Elect Obama's weekly online addresses resemble Franklin Roosevelt's radio "fireside" chats of the 1930s. Below is Obama's latest. Obama projects optimism and statesmanship. His reasonable demeanor and words are effectively throwing down the gauntlet to partisan Republicans desperately searching for a pretext to obstruct any economic recovery plan without appearing partisan himself. It's hard to see how Americans can possibly rally to Republican congressional leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner under current circumstances. Neither McConnell or Boehner appear rational or provide any reassurance that they truly grasp what is happening in America today.

Reclaiming The Word Liberal In the Age of Obama

Words matter. Labels matter. Although it has become vogue to say, “Voters are tired of labels” they remain powerful. How we define the meaning of those labels is critical. Those of us who call ourselves “liberal” have learned this the hard way. As a liberal activist who slogged, blogged and endured, I find myself reflecting about the word “liberal” and the abuse it’s absorbed with Obama’s inauguration less then three weeks away.

It seems like only yesterday I volunteered for the Dukakis campaign in college as my candidate defensively denied he was a liberal. At the time voters associated the word “liberal” with convicted rapists. In the last days of the ’88 campaign, Dukakis finally declared himself a liberal and attempted to define it on his own terms. Alas, it was too little too late.

From 1968 through 2004, predatory conservatives successfully defined liberalism to mean unpatriotic intellectual elites living in ivory towers, spewing hate America first diatribes while celebrating permissiveness over responsibility, trashing God, empowering welfare recipients over those who work and advocating surrender to America’s enemies. In other words, to be a liberal was to be un-American. This past year, liberalism wasn’t necessarily made “cool” but the right wing’s ability to distort it was undermined following eight years of George W. Bush’s reign of indecency.

Ultimately, predatory conservatism’s success at equating “liberal” with “un-American” empowered a theocratic kleptocracy to wage class warfare from the top, undermine civil liberties and prosecute an immoral foreign policy. If money is the “mother’s milk” of politics then words, labels and definitions are the music that either inspire or scare. Hence, we must reclaim the word liberal or President-Elect Obama and congressional Democrats will find themselves in a defensive crouch anytime they try to promote peace abroad or establish a compassionate, judicious and fairer social contract at home.

Diane G, put it well in a comment to me following an x-post of my essay “Replacing the Cultural Ethos of Predatory Conservatism” over at Wild Wild Left:

“Equally, the campaign against the term Liberal has brutalized its image, when in fact it is more Patriotic to support EVERYONE's rights, and oppose abuses of our fellow citizenry.

Our first work must include making those terms of definition themselves irrelevant, for one cannot easily unlearn trained connotations.”

For the very reason Diane G articulated, I named this blog Intrepid Liberal Journal when I started blogging in November 2005. Like many bloggers, I was expressing myself in opposition to our criminal foreign policy abroad and the conservative nomenklatura at home. Although I’ve certainly used the word “progressive” and like it, declaring myself a “liberal” was a proud act of defiance following decades of slander by predatory conservatives and their accomplices in the corporatist media. My attitude was,

“Yeah, I’m a liberal. Want to make something of it?”

Well, Democrats are no longer the opposition but the word liberal still needs to be defined if they are to govern in a manner that reconciles with our ideals. Most are familiar with John Kennedy’s characterization of liberalism:

“But if by a ‘Liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal.”

My Left Wing’s Maryscott O’Connor referenced Kennedy’s definition during the ’08 presidential campaign with a terrific essay entitled, “Why We Are Liberals” and went much further. Three months later it remains a must read and even more relevant with Democrats poised to assume the reigns. Her three paragraphs below are especially poignant:

“Liberals want to live in a world whose political leaders serve the people, rather than their own interests. We want American politicians to serve their constituents, rather than the corporate interests represented by the lobbying industry, let alone their own selfish aims (which almost always begin with retaining their seats of power, to the exclusion of actually using that power in the manner they ought).

We want to live to see the day when healthcare is a human right, not a pricey privilege or a ‘benefit.’ We want to live to see a day when the government regulates corporations, not personal lives. We want to be told the truth by the media and by those the media cover. We are sick of the lies, the spin, the charade. So sick of our default setting perception of anyone in government or power being distrust and cynicism. And so very sick of the wretched, ubiquitous suspicion that the whole system is rigged and there's nothing about it we can do.

We are idealists. That's what liberals are, really; those who see what is and ask, ‘Why?’ and see what isn't and ask ‘Why not?’ Liberals want to see met the basic needs of every human being. Liberals look at a world where one rich man can build an entire city out of gold while millions of poor people go without nutrition, water or medicine for their entire lifetimes -- and ask, ‘Why is this so? Is this not wrong -- and insane? And why do so many refuse to see it as such?’”

Nobody writes like Maryscott and there isn’t much I can add to that.

I would point out though that liberalism is the indispensable alternative to revolution or reaction. Now more then ever our world is teetering between elites that desperately want to hang onto power and privilege, xenophobic absolutists that reject any worldview different from their own, anarchists opposed to any kind of structure and revolutionaries eager to replace the oligarchies and autocracies that oppress them with their own brand of dictatorships.

The best thing America can do for this world on the brink is to lead by example with a humane society that values truth, nurtures progress without bloodshed or oppression and embraces dignity as a universal right for everyone. People should not have to take to the streets for healthcare, be paid the wages they deserve, insist that we stop incarcerating millions of people gratuitously for profit or demand their government only goes to war as a last resort. A liberal government that puts the needs of the people above it or the powerful will never have to fear the people or prevent them from knowing the truth.

Judicious, compassionate, intelligent, rationale, humane and visionary represents liberalism’s core values and creed. Predatory conservatives will most certainly endeavor to obstruct President-Elect Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid by disparaging the word liberal as well as distorting the record of Franklin Roosevelt’s liberal New Deal. Thus, if Obama’s era is to be one in which peace and prosperity prevail, we must vigilantly equate the word liberal with the very principles we hold dear.

Dialing For Change

Many on the left are angered by any hints of compromise with corporate interests from the incoming Obama Administration as well as congress. Meanwhile, Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is scheming to block and/or dilute any economic recovery plan put forward by the new administration. McConnell’s obstruction efforts are likely to be aided by the Blue Dogs Caucus recently formed by Indiana Democratic Senator, Evan Bayh. One may also surmise that Bayh’s new caucus will be the recipients of considerable corporate cash now that Republicans are no longer the majority party.

So how should activists respond to the situation? Admittedly, many of us, including me, are burned out after an intense election campaign and want to decompress.

However, a consumer activist named Dennis Baer has a website in which he urges citizens to take the fight to the source: corporate America itself.

According to Baer,

“Because corporations have taken over the legislative process, we citizens should join together and use our purchasing power and withhold our purchases from some of these major corporations and demand the legislation from some of these companies that have blocked progress. To this end I have formulated these telephone campaigns.”

Baer has three primary corporate targets for this telephone campaign to lobby on behalf of change or threaten a customer boycott:

• Rite Aid Pharmacies – 1-800-325-3737 – Specifically, Baer hopes to pressure the retail giant into lobbying the president and congress into enacting universal healthcare. Rite Aid is known for contributing to politicians dedicated to obstructing efforts at health care reform.

• General Electric Corporation – 1-800-386-1215 – General Electric is one of many companies engaged in war profiteering and Baer hopes to pressure them into lobbying the president and congress into ending the Iraq War sooner rather than later. There are far more companies then General Electric profiting from the war (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.) but since they also control the NBC television network, this is as good a target as any.

• Wendy’s Restaurants – 1-800-443-7266 – Baer hopes to pressure the retail giant into supporting a minimum wage of $10/hr.

For good measure, Baer adds the office of Senator Mitch McConnell (telephone number 202 224-2541) and suggests we tell his office that no filibusters or we’ll boycott Brown-Forman of Kentucky, the maker of Jack Daniels Whiskey and a McConnell contributor.

Conceptually, Baer’s concept is a simple one: convince companies such as Rite Aid Pharmacies, General Electric Corporation and Wendy’s Restaurants that they either support progressive change or lose customers. In turn he hopes such a campaign will have an impact in the corridors of power.

Baer has his critics and was banned from Daily Kos as well as the social networking sites Facebook and My Space for aggressive promotion of his agenda. And one can argue he is being overly simplistic and naïve.

Nonetheless, I give him credit for trying to make a difference instead of simply using his computer keyboard as a soapbox to rant. Baer is asking people to not only make these calls but recruit others as well.

So, I’ve made my telephone calls, waited patiently and navigated through the 800 number vortexes to speak with a human being and express myself. The Wendy’s customer service representative insisted on directing me to their website to get me off the phone. The reps at General Electric and Rite Aid were merely flummoxed but dutifully promised to “pass on” my views. McConnell’s office also politely “noted” my telephone call.

Change is hard work. Often it’s not glamorous or exciting. Whether it’s knocking on doors or phone banking to elect particular candidates or slogging away like Dennis Baer against corporate giants. People are cynical; call you naïve and often just laugh. Yet those very same people will then proceed to whine when politicians such as Barack Obama are compelled to compromise and make no effort to provide a counter-weight from the bottom up to help facilitate progressive change.

The “system” is powerful and even politicians with their hearts in the right place have to navigate it. Therefore, the change we want won’t come from contenting ourselves with merely having elected Obama and congressional Democrats and then complain when his appointments are not 100% satisfactory. What did you expect? Did you really think the system would just disappear?

We have to remain engaged on all levels and keep pushing. That’s why I made those calls and will again. That Wendy’s rep hasn’t heard the last from me! I hope readers here will do the same, enlist your friends and even promote other companies to boycott/pressure as Dennis Baer has done.

Some Blasts From The Past

It's day one of a new year but before looking ahead, here is an entertaining video montage of the pitiful Bush years courtesy of David Letterman. As the saying goes, laughter is better then tears.